Clegg’s great rejuvenator falls a little flat

‘Constitutional reform is a waste of time, pure and simple. It never actually achieves its avowed end of reconnecting the voters with democratic institutions,’ wrote John McTernan, the former advisor to Tony Blair, recently. There are signs that the current government agrees.
 
Nick Clegg has unveiled the next stage of his constitutional reforms today by revealing draft plans to reform the House of Lords. The coalition speaks in unison in public: the Cabinet discussed reform last and apparently there was “very strong support for the proposals around the table”. But dissenting voices must have sounded in private.
 
The inestimable Rachel Sylvester reveals (£) that Clegg’s draft is very rough. There is no agreement on the precise remit of the second elected chamber, its exact make up, whether there’ll be party lists, what will happen to the crossbenchers, what it will be called and when the bill will finally come before parliament.